By Andy Thornley (Director of Urban Planning Studies, LSE)
This was a Mission that was organised and paid for by the British Council in co-operation with the Urban Planning Society of China (UPSC).
There were five people (two practitioners, one person from central government and two academics), on the mission including myself. The names were requested by the UPSC.
The purpose of the Mission
The Chinese city planners wanted to learn from the experience of 'experts' from Britain, a country that is regarded in China as a leader in the field. Chinese cities are expanding enormously but there is increasing awareness of the need for a sustainable approach. The particular theme of this Mission was Urban Regeneration. From the British Council side they were exploring opportunities for UK interests in consultancy and education.
The itinerary
Harbin
Meetings with the Bureau of Urban Planning of Harbin Municipal Government to advise on their planning issues.
Site visit of an inner city neighbourhood in Harbin that was the subject of national competition for University planning students organised by UPSC.
Judging of competition entries by Anglo-Chinese panel.
Beijing
'China-UK Urban Regeneration Forum'. Two day conference with UK and Chinese speakers plus presentations by student competition winners.
'Café Scientifique' - an open seminar led by UK delegates for Beijing students (50 people).
'China-UK Commercial Forum on Urban Planning'. City planners from major cities across China attended and presented their current planning issues for which they were seeking outside help.
Chongqing
Meeting with Urban Planning Bureau of Chongqing Municipality to discuss their planning issues.
Meeting with the Faculty of the Planning Department at Chongqing University to exchange views on planning education.
Some Comments
I will record a few notes and observations that might be of interest to readers of the Newsletter.
Chinese cities are expanding at an enormous rate. For example the urban region of Chongqing was expected to grow from the current 3M to 8M people by 2020. This would involve the planning of five self-sufficient 'new towns' - each of 500,000 people. Coping with this kind of task leads to an architecturally driven master plan approach to planning.
This is reflected in planning education that is located traditionally in Architectural departments. There has been a recent expansion of the number of Universities mounting planning courses - there are now 108 University Planning departments. The Urban Planning Society of China attempts to inculcate ideas over best practice but has no actual controls over syllabus. The best Planning Schools, although even these are within the architectural tradition, are considered to be Tongi University in Shanghai, Tsinghua and Peking Universities in Beijing, and Nanking University.
There is a strong appreciation by younger faculty staff of the need to broaden the scope of planning education - especially the coverage of environmental and social aspects. However the senior staff seem to be less motivated to change. They are fully occupied as consultants to the many projects needed in the urban expansion programme. I did not come across any evidence of cross-disciplinary educational approaches to planning. However the Planning Bureau of Chongqing Municipality had taken onto its staff a PhD student with a Geography background and a thesis on the impact of new development on displacing existing communities.
There are some major urban problems developing in Chinese cities and their solution is not helped by the strong departmentalism within Municipalities and Ministries. The important need for co-ordination of governments and agencies seems difficult to achieve. Pollution was one issue and another was traffic congestion. The cities are already grid-locked at certain times of the day while car ownership is low. The central government has, as part of its economic expansion programme, the aim to increase car ownership to 50% in the near future. However this aim is not co-ordinated with the city level and it is impossible to see how they will cope.
The main theme of the Mission was 'urban regeneration'. However this is clearly a new concept to Chinese planners and there were problems of definition. For many it meant preserving buildings in the city that had architectural quality. Nearly all the Chinese academic lecture contributions to the Forum were on this theme. Much time was spent in trying to convey the idea of 'community regeneration' and the need to explore social and economic aspects. This lack of understanding was evident in the student work that focussed on new-build physical solutions. They were operating still within the command economy mentality and had no ability to understand the more complex issues of implementation within a more market oriented society.
The Urban Planning Society of China seemed a useful organisation. It was founded in 1956 and is still regarded as the recognised national professional body to promote planning practice, research and education throughout China. It is aware of international academic debates within planning. It has a small secretariat and group of experts in Beijing and branches in some of the larger cities.
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Introductions
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Poor inner city neighbourhood in Harbin
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